I’m a morning person, but even I’ll admit that sometimes it can take a minute or two for me to get going in the early hours. This was not the case one recent May morning in southern Nevada, where heatwave immersed my tent just a few quick minutes after the sun came over the horizon.

The Department of Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) set a precedent for smart solar energy in a recent decision to approve three large-scale solar projects in the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone of southern Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management is instituting a new Master Leasing Plan for an area outside Dinosaur National Monument. Large areas of wild lands in northwest Colorado will now be protected, but the new plan also opens up several sensitive areas to oil and gas drilling.

A recent independent analysis uncovered a void in the nation’s efforts to address global climate change: currently no plan exists to account for and manage greenhouse gas emissions created by energy development on public lands.